Long Legs

For tagging pictures, I classify birds sometimes by science and sometimes by something I make up. Cardinals and other songbirds are passerines, which is common shorthand for the order Passeriformes. Pigeons and doves are in the order Columbiformes. I call birds "waders" if they wade in water or look like or are related to birds that wade, even if they stick to land. The great majority of birds in this category that I have photographed have long legs. There are many small shorebirds, but I don't have pictures of them, so I haven't separated them from long-legged birds.

I didn't plan my tags much beyond bird / insect / mammal / reptile. As I have accumulated thousands of photos I've added categories and subcategories so that I can find, for example, long-legged birds.

saddle-billed stork (Cincinnati Zoo)

white-faced ibis (Columbus Zoo)

white-faced ibis (Columbus zoo)

Caribbean flamingo (Columbus Zoo)

hamerkop (Columbus Zoo)

sunbittern (Cincinnati Zoo)

killdeer (Columbus Zoo)

sacred ibis (Columbus Zoo)

Hamerkops

The hamerkop is an African bird whose name means "hammerhead." These photos of the Columbus Zoo's pair are from 2018.

A hamerkop stands on its nest. The bird is about 18 inches tall.

A hamerkop stands with wings spread on part of the viewing deck in the Congo aviary.

I'd love this photo if the bird were clearer. I cropped it close to emphasize the blurry background that came from tracking the flying hamerkop with the camera.

Hamerkops build large nests, especially considering the size of the birds.

A hamerkop carefully adds to its nest.

This is "the hamerkops' post" May 20, 2019. I have not yet seen the birds building this year.

My best of 2018

Everyone else is reviewing 2018, so here are some of my best photos taken this year. All are from the Columbus Zoo except as noted.

San Esteban chuckwalla

Inca tern (Cincinnati Zoo)

polar bear

Lee, a male polar bear arrived at the Columbus Zoo in November. (Neither of these is he.)

A polar bear and zoo visitors examine one another.

Flowers across the trumpeter swan pond. This photo was taken in September, and they might be asters.

The  foot of a mata mata, a species of turtle

A hamerkop looks quizzical.

rose-breasted grosbeak (female)

a bee

I take 100-150 pictures during a 2-3 hour zoo trip, although I took 297 during my latest trip to Toledo December 15. Some photos are of signs so that I can later identify the animal. I delete horrible pictures from the camera and more after I get home (I keep too many, though). I'm happy if I get half a dozen top-notch photos.

Birds on a wire? Nope. On a railing.

I was surprised that a black crowned crane stood on the railing of the Columbus Zoo's Congo aviary viewing deck. I was more surprised that several birds spent some time there last Thursday. (In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised, given the poop on the railing.)


Here's another black crowned crane, but a juvenile. Its wings have adult coloring, and the golden crown is looking good, but the neck and body still have some brown, and the red cheek is still developing.

black crowned crane (juvenile)

The hamerkop and its partner were busy building a nest, but this one took a break.

hamerkop

The hamerkop's toes are partially webbed.

A hamerkop's feet

The blue-bellied roller is one of my favorite birds.

blue-bellied roller (side view)

blue-bellied roller (front view)

A speckled pigeon visited.

speckled pigeon

A sacred ibis preened.

A sacred ibis preens.

A sacred ibis's tail feathers